Be careful with doors that open in flight!

[paco]

An interesting report worth sharing:

Transport Safety Board of Canada

Phil

[SASless]

When a bubble door pops open next to you it will make you sit upright!

With a bit of pedal you can get the door into a position to latch it properly....without much difficulty. Reducing airspeed and yawing the aircraft is enough to work the problem out.

I had a door do that three times in one short flight....it was warped all out of shape as was the helicopter from way too many thousand hours of Logging.

This should not have been a fatal accident.

[lelebebbel]

very interesting report.

The pilot indicated that he could not land because he was holding the door with his hand. This implied that the pilot was holding the door with his left hand and therefore could not operate the helicopter's collective control to adjust the rotor blade angle. To slow the helicopter to the point where he would be able to close the door, he would have had to ease back on the cyclic control with his right hand to raise the nose of the helicopter and bleed off airspeed. Without adjusting collective, the helicopter would climb in a nose-high attitude as observed.

The climb got progressively steeper before the nose suddenly dropped. The dropping of the nose is consistent with the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude. The pilot should have been aware of the dangers of mast bumping through the pilot's initial helicopter licensing training and subsequent experience with helicopter operations. It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude. This allowed the helicopter to enter a low-g condition, which in turn led to mast bumping and the in-flight breakup of the helicopter.

[WhirlwindIII]

Had this happen in BH222A and S76A - had to slow to @60 knots, both times IMC, in order to get the door closed. When they open at 140 knots it's enought to scare the daylights out of you.

[Shawn Coyle]

I agree that having a door open in flight (or any other loud noise) is scary. But it's no reason to go to pieces. By it's nature and the laws of physics, a door hinged at the front isn't going to protrude very far into the slipstream.
I agree- this should not have been a fatal accident.

[SASless]

From the accident report....

The bubble door hinges and latching mechanism were in the burnt remains of the main wreckage. The door was still connected by its hinges to the door frame, and the emergency door release handle was in the stowed position. The door latches and door handle were in the unlatched position.

[212man]

The climb got progressively steeper before the nose suddenly dropped. The dropping of the nose is consistent with the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude. The pilot should have been aware of the dangers of mast bumping through the pilot's initial helicopter licensing training and subsequent experience with helicopter operations. It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude. This allowed the helicopter to enter a low-g condition, which in turn led to mast bumping and the in-flight breakup of the helicopter.

This paragraph seems to be contradicting itself. Having ASSUMED, the climb became progressively steeper (though the first sentence reads as if it came from FDR data) the board suggests that the pilot's sudden recovery caused the reduced loading -

the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude

But later they imply the low-g condition developed without pilot input -

It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude

I'd go with the first statement - the pilot propably found himself with no airspeed point skywards and 'shoved' the cyclic forward more quickly than was wise.

[ReverseFlight]

Doors must be popping open quite regularly, and here's just one example.

I was once backseating an instructional flight where the student was on his first time in a Longranger for a type endorsement. Just before reaching circuit height his (right) door popped open. The left-seated instructor immediately took over the controls and the student had to slam the door back with both hands several times before it could be shut and latched properly. No simple feat as the front doors of a Longie are quite heavy and the slipstream wasn't making it easy for him.

[Scissorlink]

Initiate descent with collective, do up friction a little, hold door handle.. bleed off airspeed with cyclic, hopefully you will be slowing right down while maintaining height now...quietly close door and lock, nose forward, friction off. power in.....carry on

[Runway101]

Had my front left door pop open last December with 3 PAX on board. Asked passenger on right seat to hold on to it and landed in a field close by.

I thoroughly checked the door and the mechanism involved for closing, and found it to be out of shape (stuff didn't seem in place) and it was difficult to close again. My first thought was the outside air temp which was below zero C at that time.

Back on base, everything worked like a charm again, and upon subsequent checking in the following weeks I've never found a problem again. Maybe the door wasn't latched correctly at the first place and that's what caused it to be out of shape a bit.

To be on the "safe side" I decided on a best way of handling such a situation when it would happen again, me alone without anybody who could hold on to it. Luckily it didn't happen again.

In any case, I'll probably never see these passengers again unless they are in for another adrenalin kick.

Makes me dream of a beautiful EC120 (= the Audi of light helicopters?) at night. I am not going to say what make the helicopter was but I guess you all know it. But reading these reports it seems it's a common problem and not type specific.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Had the right door of a 355 pop when I was in the left seat of the aircraft. No duals were fitted and the P1 couldn't close it. He slowed the aircraft and I got into the back and tried to close it. He was low time with only 15 hours on the 355 and he let the nose drop and the speed rapidly increase as I was about to latch the thing. The airflow seemed to curl round the door wrenching it open, buggering up my collar bone and all the muscle and tendons in that area. Up until then I believed the airflow would hold the thing just ajar, but at 70kt it goes full open at very high speed.

Hurt like hell and as usual was a case of an old 355 with mighty abused doors.

[chopjock]

Surely if the left door opens in flight, apply right pedal and fly out of trim and the door will close itself!

[heliski22]

Had it happens many years ago on the cabin door of a 206B, with pax in the back. Caused great excitement amongst the pax, particularly because of the explosive burst of sound from rushing air that accompanied the actual opening. Rather than trying to brief already excited pax on what to do next (the pre-departure brief told them how to open the door, not to close it in flight!) I just aimed it into the nearest field and sorted it on the ground.

Also had a caption on a 109E one time because the upper pin on the pilot's side cockpit door hadn't gone properly home while closing it on the ground. Shortly after take-off, the buffetting got enough to pull the door out a little at the top, enought to activate the switch and give me a caption.

I just left the controls alone, the aircraft was already established in the cimb-out and the Force Trim held them just where they were, and proceeded to release the door with a view to closing it properly.

However, even passing 40kts, once the door was actually open, even just a little bit, it caused an awesome racket, was extremely difficult to get closed and I thought "Right, I won't be doing that again!!"

It's such a tragedy the pilot didn't just leave it and get it down first, particularly as a colleague had the same or a similar problem and was able to bring the aircraft to the hover without incident.

[WhirlwindIII]

I guess things that startle a pilot are relative to the environment. In RVN some things like small arms hitting the helicopter became somewhat par for the course unless lights or problems started to appear. In civil aviation when one does not expect something like a door popping open at 140 knots, or so, it can be a big event that should be discussed, at least, in training. Losing control through fear is not an option.

[spencer17]

I guess nearly everybody of us had that experience in his flying career.
It's no reason to kill yourself by holding the door and getting into an uncontrollable attitude.
The pilot had more than 10,000 hours experience. He really must have had a bad day.

[Bladecrack]

It is tragic that someone died beacuse of a door opening in flight..

The first time that it happened me was in a 206B3 and it was a bit of a shock, but the pax behind me gave me a hand and I soon got it closed, luckily nothing blew out the door. No big drama. It became a regular occurance when flying old 206B2's.. The key is not to panic, if you can close it safely close it, if not land. Never stop flying the helicopter!

[WhirlwindIII]

Pilot had more than 10,000 hours experience. Perhaps there was more to this event than meets the eye/s / investigation?

[rotorrookie]

I been there like ten time in Long Ranger when the door pops open... it scares the **** out of me every time, for a sec or two.

I find it strange that +10k hrs pilot is caught off guard like that, obviously panics and stops flying the dam thingwith this tragic outcome

[mikelimapapa]

Happened to me in a R44 at about 100kts, but in my case it was self inflicted. Student flying, somehow the conversation came up about a door being unlatched in flight....me being the all-knowing instructor, I confidently told the student that nothing would happen due to the airflow pushing against it. I then preceded to unlatch said door followed by a very loud . Tried unsucessfully to pull it closed for a second or two, then had the bright idea to reach over and push the fresh air vent closed which thankfully worked. Made sure student understood he was to never to speak of said incident and continued rest of flight.

Live and learn.

Mike

[ADRidge]

Had a similar incident in a -44, although not as fast. No biggie, as duals were installed. I closed and latched the door, end of story. I agree that any odd/loud noise has the potential to startle a pilot, but I also agree that an unlatched door simply should not kill people. However, all it takes is a second, and any one of us could be the subject of a similar investigation.